Friday
Early the next morning Clemont and Gary came to an agreement on the map arrangement before the group set out. There were two highlighted pockets on the map, one assumed to be for remote observation (a safety feature Gary concluded was built as a direct result of the failed ursaring study) and another zone for the captive pokemon. They had determined which zone was which based on the potential for additional exit routes branching off from the assumed observation zone. The group had also decided to split into two factions in case a remote shut down was a safety feature both available and needed.
Despite knowing why the group approach was the best option, the water pokemon specialist was rather irritable about the groups themselves, as she was set to go with Serena and Bonnie to the study center, while Clemont and Ash were slated for the pokemon zone. From Gary's meticulous notes taken during his overnight rush read through the laboratory notebook scans, the pokemon they were going to find still remained a mystery. The only clues Gary had uncovered was that it was part of a trio and classified as legendary, as Justus, whoever he was, was certain that legendary pokemon could withstand the updated model without self-destruction.
Gary stressed how uneasy he was about the situation over the phone and how the group needed to be extra cautious when interacting with a legendary pokemon dosed with high potency stimulants, but he also recognized that doing nothing could prove just as deadly for the entire city.
Before they'd even left the hotel, Clemont was trying to urge Bonnie to stay behind, but the preteen remained adamant that she was as much a part of this misguided adventure as any of them, insisting that, of all things, "Ash had done crazier things at eleven."
And he had, but nobody agreed that he should have. It just so happened that when the world needed saving, he often managed to be at the center of it. To reward his bravery and insanity, the universe graced him with incredible luck, but that didn't mean he hadn't skirted death by mere millimeters on more than one occasion.
They all knew it, and it left an uneasy tension lingering as they set foot out of the gym doors, finally on their way to the epicenter of trouble.
They trekked through the deep snow, relying on snowshoes and winter gear to slowly amble towards the outskirts of town while the brother and sister duo negotiated a compromise of sorts – Bonnie would take the third research walkie-talkie and remain just inside the entrance of the cave in case communication between either group gave out. While Bonnie didn't love the change in roles, she understood how important this could be if the situation for either group turned critical.
Though without Bonnie as part of the recon group anymore, it left Misty even more irritable about her pairing with Serena.
"Wouldn't it make more sense to have three people go try and subdue the pokemon and one explore the remote lab setup?" Misty offered, though her tone was half-hearted as she fully understood the response she'd receive.
"Nobody's going alone," Ash explained firmly. He was mildly aware that there was growing tension between the Kanto and Kalos girls, but the current situation was perilous at best, so he also knew they'd set their differences aside for the time being.
Serena hadn't been fighting the arrangement for once, though her distrust and dislike of the redhead still lingered. She was not the battling expert that Ash, or even Clemont and Misty, seemed to be, and so it made sense for her to provide the accessory assistance. Where she knew her battling skills weren't on the level of the others, she also knew she could figure out how to remote shut something down if she needed to.
"Then why don't you and I go take down this legendary and Clemont can go with Serena; I bet he'd be better at figuring out a remote shut down anyway," Misty offered earnestly. Practically, she was less of a strategist and more of a powerhouse when it came to battling.
"Myst," Ash calmly placed a gloved hand on her arm and pulled her back from the group as they passed a marker for the trail leading up to the cave system, "I know you're a stronger battler than Clemont, but we don't know what kind of traps or pokemon encounters we'll face in either zone of the cave. What I do know is, that in addition to being a powerful trainer, you're also a good puzzle solver so I need you to keep Serena safe and help figure out the shut down mechanism so Clemont and I don't have to battle whatever pokemon is trapped in there for long."
"Okay," Misty sighed, her resolve easily broken by hopeful brown eyes.
"Thank you," Ash beamed giving her arm an affectionate squeeze through the thick winter jacket, "I promise this adventure won't be our last one together."
Nodding, Misty fished through her bag and found the pokeball she was looking for, releasing the pokemon as she did.
"Gyarados, listen to what Ash says, and help his team take down the threat we're facing. I'm counting on you," Misty directed giving the water dragon an affectionate pat on his spiny ornamental headpiece. He responded with an affirmative call and a warm nudge to her gloved hand.
The others had noticed the duo lag behind and paused to wait near the entrance to the cave while Misty recalled gyarados and handed the pokeball to Ash.
"Be careful, okay?"
It was a statement she'd said hundreds of times, and one she knew elicited little change in his rash behavior, but still it felt wrong to say nothing.
"I promise," Ash grinned gripping her gloved hand firmly in his own; a motion they'd made as challengers and friends throughout much of their history.
Misty gave another nod and the pair moved to catch up with the waiting group, now situated inside the entrance of the cave to escape the still falling snow.
Maps were given out with a copy handed to each group and one left to Bonnie who had her marked spot to wait at the entrance. The preteen found that she slipped easily behind a large stalagmite six feet from the entrance which enabled her to keep an eye on the entrance and the cavern system without being spotted which would also allow her to alert the groups of any incoming troublemakers.
As the group prepared to move into the dark cave toward the split that would lead them to their respective zones, Misty quickly pressed her cellular phone into Bonnie's hand.
"I doubt I'll have much signal down there and it's currently on silent, but if you need it, feel free to use it," Misty instructed gently showing the preteen the code that would open the device and squeezing the younger girl's shoulder in a friendly gesture.
As a youngest sibling herself, she'd always found it easier to connect to and empathize with the younger siblings in a group. Bonnie nodded as she watched the four head into the cave system and prepared herself to keep watch.
When the remainder of the group reached the split point, Misty felt her heart lurch. She wanted to say something to Ash, but this was just another in a long list of ill-fated adventures that he'd endure and given the group presence, she held back words. Instead she simply motioned her intent to head down the designated cave channel and thereby missed his lingering gaze as she went. Serena trailed after the emboldened redhead like a ducklett while the boys remained fixed in place at the fork for several minutes past the girl's departure down their respective tunnel.
The scale of the map seemed equivalent with each tunnel being of similar length, so the plan was to have the girl's arrive a few minutes earlier to the lab relay information that would give the boys an idea of what they were potentially walking into.
Only world saving intentions rarely go to plan...
The unlikely pair of Ash's former traveling companions made their way through the chilled tunnel in silence. Much like the weather, their attitudes towards one another hadn't thawed in the slightest.
"What's your problem," Serena snapped, finally breaking the silent brooding match that had been looming between the girl's since the hotel debacle the day prior.
"This really isn't the time or place," Misty muttered trying to remain focused on the task at hand, but losing the battle to her growing ire. She'd had just about enough of trying to remain calm in the wake of Serena's overt nature around Ash and, at the moment, Misty wanted nothing more than to return to Kanto and put great distance between herself and the blue-eyed pokemon performer.
Shoving down her thoughts of violence, Misty marked the wall with a lipstick X to track their trail. Lily would make her pay for the borrowed cosmetic later, but she figured an expensive rouge was at least what her life was worth.
"Why are you being such a brat about everything?" Serena bristled, "I don't like you, and you don't like me. That's fine, but stop pretending like you're somehow better than me to Ash."
"I'm not. I'm just trying to get home," Misty grumbled jamming her gloved hands in her pockets and losing her composure, "besides, you're the one practically falling all over him whenever he's around."
"Oh don't pretend like you're not loving this whole icy catastrophe," Serena griped glaring at Misty through the dim flashlight lit tunnel.
"Yes, because I obviously caused the storm, Serena. I came here on holiday, didn't tell Ash where I was for a whole week, and then decided 'wouldn't it be fun if I could mess up entire ecosystems just so I could try to end up in bed with my childhood crush,'" Misty sarcastically snapped.
"Well, I know you still have feelings for him," Serena muttered biting at the tip of her glove with anxious irritability.
"And so do you, but so what?" Misty retorted, "no matter how anyone feels, Ash will always, and has always, done what his gut tells him to do. I can't influence him, you can't influence him, Hell, even Delia can't influence him…"
"Delia?" Serena asked bewildered, "who is Delia and why is she important?"
Serena felt her mind flare in panic; had she overlooked a woman who was even more important to Ash than this fabled first traveling companion?
"What, like Ash isn't the biggest Momma's boy you know?" Misty snapped smartly, scanning the tunnel with wary blue-green eyes.
"Well you don't know Ash like I do," Serena boasted trying to debase the redhead's confidence streak as Serena's nerves quelled at the information that Delia was just Mrs. Ketchum and not some mystery paramour.
"And I could say the same for you. You've been present for one chapter in his journey; I've been here for the whole damn story," Misty boldly retorted, peering around a corner in the cave system.
Their boisterous argument was sure to draw the attention of whatever sleeping pokemon loomed within, but the cold seemed to leave all the rock and ground pokemon that called this cavern home in a deep slumber.
"I just don't see why he would pick –" Serena started before Misty cut her off again.
"Shh…I think I see something up ahead," Misty directed forcefully, earning an eye roll from her counterpart.
"You always have to get the last word in, don't you?" Serena muttered, noticing the space up ahead was lit with some kind of lantern system. The lights were strung along the outside edges of an otherwise empty room and were all connected by wires leading back to a darkened alcove at the far end of the room.
"What's with the lights?" Misty puzzled while scanning the room. For a recon center and makeshift lab it was devoid of any of the expected notebooks or monitors.
Radioing back to the group via walkie-talkie Misty relayed the information she had:
"We're at the marked spot, but it's empty aside from some lights. Seems like this might have been some kind of decoy or the project has been packed up."
Static was all that came through and she shrugged, clipping the walkie-talkie back onto the outside of her jacket, and reasoning that they were too far underground to get a clear message to either group.
"Should we turn around?" Serena asked gently, the argument from earlier on pause with the eerily empty space. Something felt off, but neither trainer was certain what stirred these feelings, so it was a shared unsaid.
"In a minute. I'm just going to take a quick look at where those wires lead," Misty explained, forcing bravery where she felt none and inching forward toward the darkened alcove.
Meanwhile…
Bonnie sighed for the umpteenth time as she stared at the empty entrance to the cave. By now about 50 minutes had passed and she guessed the groups were near their respective zones and judging by the lack of walkie-talkie activity, communication must not be as functional as her big brother had hoped.
The petite blonde was unsurprised by this, as most things invented by her elder sibling shared this common nonfunctional trait, but it meant she was bored and feeling fairly useless at the moment.
She unlocked Misty's cell phone to see if there were any games to kill the time when a call flashed up on the screen. The younger trainer giggled as she read the nickname associated with the call and answered with intent to tease Gare-Bear about his title.
"Oh thank Arceus, Red, I was afraid you'd already gone into the caves," Gary sighed in relief as the call was picked up.
"This is Bonnie. Um, they did," Bonnie nervously replied, the joke she'd had ready died in her throat as Gary's panic rose.
"No…" Gary's voice dropped off hoarsely, "can you reach them? We made a mistake. Clemont and I...we were wrong about the zones…."
Bonnie's face paled as she realized what that meant: right now, Misty and Serena were headed into the pokemon zone and Misty had handed Ash her most powerful pokemon. Sure, Bonnie figured Misty had other pokemon, but likely none that could stand up to…
"Kyurem!"
The call came out over the walkie-talkie; it was a frantic, but clear word from someone well used to being in harms way, but currently distracted with an altercation.
Gary heard it when Bonnie did and his heart sank. He knew Misty well enough to know that she didn't use that kind of panicked clarity unless she was diving into something she knew was above her skill level.
Thankfully Bonnie reacted, radioing the boys and trying to keep levelheaded.
"We...wrong...zones…"
The message was missing words and came out choppy and disjointed given the need for the radio waves to travel underground. While the research walkie-talkies were better than a generic brand they still weren't meant to travel through the grit and ground of deep earth.
All that mattered was that the message got through.
Ash's eyes sparked panic as he fixated on the extra pokeball on his belt and Pikachu, realizing what this meant despite the language barrier, darted back toward the split ahead of either trainer.
A second later a steel door started to lower from the end of the tunnel they'd just walked through, a safety mechanism triggered by whatever was happening in the other zone, and it threw Ash into a frenzied panic of sprinting towards where they'd come from.
As the steel door nearly hit bottom, Pikachu slipped through at the last second, but Ash hadn't been quick enough and found himself banging on barrier and begging the universe for a way to get to the girls.
Misty's heart sank as the air around her grew colder with each cautious step forward. Uncertainty turned to realization as angry, yellow eyes leered back at her from the darkness.
The creature lumbered into view with thundering steps slowly lugging its large frame into the light until it hit a stopping point, still tethered by the legs and torso to the cavern wall by metal braces and titanium chains. The creature let out an icy roar which spewed a directed attack as Misty, the intended recipient of said attack, scrambled to dodge.
She gracelessly tumbled to the ground, just barely scraping by without injury. Regrouping from her landing spot, Misty clicked the call button on the walkie-talkie and willed the message to reach the rest of the group.
She and Serena were in trouble, and she knew without gyarados, she would only be able to put up a fight for so long.
"Kyurem!"
Misty had just reached her feet when an ice beam struck the side of her leg. Wincing and biting her lower lip to ignore the searing pain, she ducked behind a nearby stalagmite and turned to find Serena still immobilized in fear at the entrance of the cavern.
Fortunately for the trainers, the legendary seemed limited in movement given the restraints, but the metal creaked and groaned under the angry willpower of the prehistoric beast.
Misty quickly scanned the room and noted the IV drip that fed into a spot on the Kyurem's leg. While the liquid moving through the reinforced drip glistened under the yellow lantern light, Misty formulated a plan.
It was a rough strategy, one that she would have chided Ash about had it been his, but at the moment it was all she could do.
Fishing Politoed's pokeball out from her pocket she called the frog pokemon forward.
"We're in trouble; help form a distraction," Misty directed the agreeable amphibian while sprinting back toward the blonde who'd just caught the locked gaze of the ice pokemon.
The blonde was a stantler in the headlights as the Kyurem prepared for another attack. The rage behind its yellow eyes seemed amplified by the golden light of the room and the steady influx of stimulant.
As rapidly as she could, Misty shoved the pokemon performer out of the cavern just as the beast released a bone chilling icy wind attack.
"Go back and get help from the others. I'm going to go for the IV," Misty hurriedly explained to Serena in a voice far more confident than she felt.
Behind them Politoed dodged a dragon rage attack.
"Are you crazy?" Serena exasperated fretfully.
Misty clipped the walkie-talkie to the outside of Serena's pink jacket and sent the girl down the now iced over hallway with a light push.
"Probably," Misty called after her with a grin before turning her determined gaze back to the pokemon zone and readying more of her team to join the fight.
Misty wished at that moment that she hadn't passed gyarados to Ash, but if she was going down, she was going to make her last stand a formidable one.
"Corsola, Starmie; we need your help," Misty directed, moving back into the room and recalling Politoed who'd fainted at the outrage attack that Kyurem landed moments before.
With Serena on her way for reinforcements, Misty worked at her plan using Starmie and Corsola to triangulate and distract the enraged beast allowing the redhead to make her way toward the side wall that would put her in closest proximity to the drip.
And if that IV wasn't how the beast was getting the stimulant then she was doomed.
It took edging, three steps forward and two steps back, for the better portion of 20 minutes before she was finally close enough to grab the IV line. Capitalizing on the fact that Kyurem had just landed a pointed ice beam that left Corsola frozen and the beast distracted, Misty snatched the IV between her hands and yanked as hard as she could, though to her disappointment, the line didn't budge. Instead, the elongated neck of the beast twisted so its yellow eyes leered directly into the green-blue of her own.
She could feel the radiating chill coming off of the beast's body and it snorted frigid wind into her face. Now with nowhere for her to escape, Kyurem opened it's toothed jaws to unleash a blast of ultra cold air directly at the trainer at close range.
Misty flinched, turning her face to the side as the blast hit, but she managed to keep her hands firmly fixed on the IV line. When the force from the attack became so overwhelming it pushed her back towards the far wall of the cavern, her grip on the IV allowed the line to finally dislodge as well. Dazed and struggling to upright herself, she recalled Starmie and Corsola to the safety of their pokeballs and realized she was finally out of ideas, pokemon, and hiding spots.
She could see Kyurem gearing up for another attack from the far wall and she braced herself, steadying her bruised and battered body against a nearby stalagmite.
'At least Kyurem is still trapped here,' Misty thought with a small sigh of relief. The others would be safe if they came through later. The stimulant had stopped being injected, so eventually the storm and the rage would cease.
A pointed ice beam formed at the mouth of the prehistoric legendary and Misty braced for impact, debating whether she should close her eyes or stare the beast down when suddenly a flash of yellow zipped in front of her just as the attack was about to land.
An audible gasp escaped her as she realized by some miraculous luck Pikachu had taken the brunt of the force, which left the mouse pokemon dazed, but still determined. Strategizing, Misty noticed that they now had a potential exit route so scrambling forward on the leftover fumes of her own adrenaline, she picked up the injured pokemon and hobbled toward the exit of the cavern as quickly as her frozen legs could manage.
For a moment, she breathed a shaky sigh of relief.
Meanwhile…
"Ash, you have to focus. Pikachu will find them and everything will be okay," Clemont unsuccessfully tried to mediate as the desperate raven-haired trainer continued to beat his gloved fists against the metal door.
"You can't know that," Ash exasperated turning to Clemont with a misguided glare.
In a small way Ash was relieved that Pikachu had managed to make it through, but he was racked with guilt that he hadn't been quick enough.
His friends were in danger, taking his place in the task, and he was trapped in a useless safe zone.
"All we can do now is look for either a trigger release on this door, or a way to remotely help," Clemont logically explained, moving into the makeshift lab space and uncovering a more recent laboratory notebook that was obscured by pages of notes on top of a haphazard desk.
"We were wrong! Ash? Clemont? Bonnie? Anybody?" An out-of-breath voice frantically called out over the walkie-talkie system.
"Serena, you guys are okay!" Ash exclaimed in massive relief, picking up the walkie-talkie while Clemont continued to focus on the newly found notebook.
"I am, but Misty needs help…" Serena explained, tinges of stress permeating her tone.
"Is she injured? What happened?" Ash's tone once again turned frantic as he realized he hadn't heard the redhead's voice yet and she was generally one of the more vocal people he knew.
"She stayed behind to fight...it's a Kyurem. She thought if she could get to the IV drip and remove it, she could stop the stimulant. I told her not to, but she didn't listen to me." Serena elaborated with a sad sigh, pressing her back into the wall at the split of the cave and taking a moment to catch her breath. The freezing air was making it difficult for her lungs to function after her rushed sprint through the tunnel system.
Serena listened to the roars that emanated from the passage she'd come from and shivered in anxiety.
"If it's any consolation, she's still fighting. I can hear Kyurem's calls," Serena attempted to soothe as Ash had dropped off the line with a soft "no."
"Ash," Clemont directed forcibly, "you need to stay with me."
Clemont gripped the dark haired trainer's shoulders and attempted to shake him out of his stupefied state.
"Of course she's fighting alone...she has the nerve to tell me to be careful...and I...I have her gyarados..." Ash disjointedly rambled in an unfocused manner placing his hand over the extra pokeball on his belt and wincing in guilt.
"Then help her. Help me find something, anything, that will shut this down," Clemont snapped, shuffling around the room and evaluating a covered cart in the corner.
"Pikachu just went by. He'll help her," Serena radioed optimistically trying to stoke some hope back into the dismal situation.
For as much animosity that had built between the female trainers, Serena still acknowledged that Misty had saved her earlier, and regardless of arguments, she didn't want serious harm to befall the redhead.
Clemont pulled the cover off the cart he'd been investigating and revealed a small monitor and a series of switches. Making a rash decision, the scientist flipped an unlabeled gray switch on the side of the board on and the small screen came to life with a live feed from the other zone.
"Ash, I have visuals," Clemont explained staring hopefully at the scene before him, "she's…"
At that moment the boys watched Kyurem blast a chilly attack directly into the redhead's face. Ash let out an anguished yelp as he watched the aftermath.
Despite the direct attack, she held on to the IV for dear life.
Ash knew she would.
She had an indomitable will.
Sometimes that meant diving into treacherous whirlpools. Other times it meant running into collapsing buildings, haunted towers, and or active volcanoes. A long time ago, he'd been the one to drag her from certain death as she stood up to a skyscraper sized tentacruel and braced herself for a tentacle whipping toward her that was the size of a city bus.
She was a fighter.
And as much as he hated it when she put herself into dangerous situations, she was like him in that regard: accept the fear, and do it anyway.
His heart erratically thumped in his chest as he watched her take the hit in real time and fly back across the room.
Clemont chose to study the switchboard as Ash monitored the screen with growing panic.
A series of symbols and letters associated with colored switches were laid out before them and while Clemont didn't know if they would actually function now that the IV line was disconnected, he recognized some of the markings from studies of his own.
The whole system appeared to be a switchboard of potions and poisons, with options ranging from things Clemont knew would have to be intravenously injected to others that had a possibility of being powdered in application. Given Clemont hadn't set the parameters or the precautions for this study, all he could do was hedge his bets on a couple of likely options.
Ash sighed in small relief as he watched Misty shakily stand up after the direct attack, but his heart sunk when he saw the determination on her face, knowing just as well as she did that she was a goner if not for some interference.
"Pikachu," Ash mumbled in respite as the rodent pokemon flashed into view and intercepted the next attack from Kyurem sparing the redhead who seemed just as surprised.
Ash held his breath as Misty scooped up the yellow mouse and stumbled toward the exit while Kyurem recharged after it's last attack.
For a split second it seemed like everything would be okay.
Clemont flipped a switch he'd been debating in response to Ash let out an anguished yelp, the breaking chains of the beast on the screen dousing his previous hope as the creature angrily stormed towards the injured human.
From hidden nozzles in the ceiling of the cave, a small blue dust began to fall. Ash gripped the cart with whitening knuckles as he watched Misty begin to succumb to the sleep powder, protectively curling herself around Pikachu as she slipped to the ground and quickly drifted off.
Unfortunately, Kyurem seemed unaffected as it continued to stomp towards the passed out trainer. Clemont kept the switch for sleep powder toggled to the on position. The inventive trainer focused, pushing his glasses up in concentration, while next to him Ash was fading into a pale, panicked catastrophe as he fixated on the screen.
"Hit something else; this isn't working. They're done for..." Ash lamented worriedly, but Clemont remained steadfast.
"Give it a moment, its wavering," Clemont soothed, nerves steeled as he watched the screen intently.
The prehistoric beast was nearly in front of the sleeping girl. It stopped its forward movement, sniffed the top of her head with little snowflakes falling onto her hair as it exhaled, and the beast opened its mouth to start to build up ice for another close range attack.
"Something. Else. Now." Ash demanded through gritted teeth, guilt and fury overrunning any sense of logic he previously held.
Clemont stared at the board, but before he could flip another switch, the sleep powder finally took hold.
The icy blast crashed into an upper portion of the cavern as Kyurem swayed, rotating it's neck in an unfocused manner. Its angry, yellow eyes narrowed to slits until they finally closed. Then finally, with a staggering step, the beast crashed to the ground next to the passed out pikachu and water pokemon trainer.
It was a blur from there.
Somehow, despite the chaos, Clemont found the release mechanism on the steel door, and as soon as it was up, Ash took off in a sprint towards the other tunnel. He passed Serena, still situated at the fork and directed her to wait for Clemont and then return to the entrance to find Bonnie.
He had to get to Misty.
And Pikachu, but he knew Pikachu would be okay since the redhead was protecting him which left Ash more concerned about the feisty redhead.
He slipped on an icy patch as he approached the other zone entrance, swearing as he scrambled to his feet and hurdled forward into the zone he'd watched the screen. Inside, he found the redhead still curled up where she'd appeared on the monitor. Her breath was shallow, but aside from being a bit bruised and scraped up, she seemed okay.
He coaxed Pikachu out of her grip, thanking the groggy electric rodent for doing his part to protect Misty. He knew Pikachu cared for the redhead and would readily risk life and limb for her without hesitation, and he recognized how close he'd come to losing her if his faithful first pokemon hadn't stepped in.
Ash tensed his body while behind him the previously sleeping legendary staggered to it's feet, the effects of sleep powder already wearing off.
Protectively, Ash draped himself over the still sleeping redhead while Pikachu took a fighting stance in front of them, blocking the beast's access to the humans.
But Kyurem paid them no mind, fruitlessly flapping icy wings that weren't meant for flight before slowly ambling toward the cavern exit.
The rage was done. The sleep had accelerated the breakdown of the stimulant and freed of it's anger, the pokemon fled it's captive zone.
Ash quickly radioed the others to alert them of this new movement.
"Kyurem is on the move; it doesn't seem to want to attack anymore so just give it space to leave."
He hoped the message would get through, but his immediate focus turned back to Misty who remained chilled to the touch and fast asleep.
"Myst," Ash gently prodded, gently nudging her shoulder with a shaky hand.
Her eyes opened half-way, but her gaze remained unfocused.
"Can you stand? We need to get out of here," Ash explained softly, but when no response was given aside from the shallow sleepy breaths she was emitting, he moved to maneuver the redhead so he could carry her back to the entrance of the cave system.
It was finally time to go home.
-Chapter end-
It brings me immense joy to know that my storyteller side is resonating with you and I enjoy sharing this journey. I'll have two more chapters for you that will both be shorter wrap up chapters that should (hopefully) bring this story to a neat little close. We're still slow burnin' on the romance after all!
Thank you for your patience and encouragement. It's meant the world to me during the past several months.
I appreciate you all so very much and I'm working hard on the next chapter. Three weeks or less until I post again - promise!
-FWFT